ROYAL FLAGG JONAS, TRUSTEE, APPELLANT,
v.
WILLIAM G. LOGAN AND MARTIN NECA LOGAN, HIS WIFE, APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1985-11-05
No. 85-202
Before HUBBART, BASKIN and JOR-GENSON, JJ.
478 So. 2d 410 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1985) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Royal Flagg Jonas, holder of a forged mortgage on property owned by William and Martin Neca Logan as tenants by the entireties, appealed a judgment voiding his lien. The court affirmed, holding that Mr. Logan's transfer of his entire interest to Mrs. Logan via quit-claim deed prior to the dissolution of marriage terminated the tenancy by the entireties and vested sole title in Mrs. Logan, leaving no interest in Mr. Logan to which Jonas's lien could attach.


Holding

The court held that Mr. Logan's conveyance of the property to Mrs. Logan by quit-claim deed, executed and recorded prior to entry of the final dissolution judgment, terminated the tenancy by the entireties and vested the entire estate in Mrs. Logan free of Jonas's mortgage lien. Mr. Logan possessed no interest to which the lien could attach because the conveyance vested sole title in Mrs. Logan before the dissolution became final.


Headnotes

[1] A conveyance of property from a husband to a wife terminates an estate held by the entireties and vests the entire estate in the wife.

[2] A husband's conveyance of his interest in an estate by the entireties to his wife, pursuant to an agreement incorporated into a dissolution judgment, vests the entire est…

Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“A conveyance by a husband to a wife terminates an estate owned by the entireties and vests the entire estate in the wife.”

Establishes the controlling legal principle that the husband's transfer to his wife automatically terminates the tenancy by the entireties.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Mr. Logan forged Mrs. Logan's signature on a mortgage note and deed executed September 23, 1981, on property held as tenants by the entireties. On Apr…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
BASKIN, Judge.

BASKIN, Judge.

Royal Flagg Jonas appeals a final judgment, entered after a non-jury trial, declaring null and void a mortgage lien, expunging the lien from the records, and nullifying a mortgage note as to appellee Martin Neca Logan. We affirm.

Jonas was the holder of a mortgage deed and note executed on September 23, 1981, by William G. Logan on property held by Mr. Logan and his wife, Martin Neca Logan, as tenants by the entireties. It is uncontested that, without Mrs. Logan’s knowledge, Mr. Logan forged her signature to the note and mortgage. On or about April 1, 1982, in anticipation of the pending dissolution of their marriage, the Logans entered into a property settlement agreement. In accordance with the property settlement agreement, Mr. Logan transferred the property by quit-claim deed to Mrs. Logan and recorded the transfer shortly before entry of the final dissolution judgment on May 20,1982. The final judgment of dissolution incorporated the property settlement agreement. When Mr. Logan ceased making payments on the mortgage, Jonas filed an action for foreclosure.

Jonas challenges the trial court’s determination that Mr. Logan’s transfer of the property to Mrs. Logan terminated the Lo-gans’ tenancy by the entireties and vested all interest in the property in Mrs. Logan without creating an interest in Mr. Logan to which Jonas’s lien could attach. Jonas maintains that the property was actually converted from a tenancy by the entireties to a tenancy in common either on the date the Logans entered into the property settlement agreement or on the entry of the dissolution of marriage, and that his lien attached to Mr. Logan’s undivided one-half interest. We disagree.

The property settlement agreement discloses that the parties intended to convey Mr. Logan’s interest upon execution of the quit-claim deed to Mrs. Logan.* Thus, Jonas’s reliance on Dodson v. National Title Insurance Co., 159 Fla. 371, 31 So. 2d 402 (1947) is misplaced. Although a husband and wife may contract to terminate an estate by the entireties, contractual termination did not occur in this case. The parties merely agreed that Mr. Logan would convey the property to Mrs. Logan at a later date. They did not agree to change the status of the property prior to the conveyance.

We reject Jonas’s assertions that his mortgage lien attached on entry of dissolution. A conveyance by a husband to a wife terminates an estate owned by the entireties and vests the entire estate in the wife. State Department of Commerce, Division of Employment Security v. Lowery, 333 So. 2d 495 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). In Lowery, the first district held that where, prior to entry of a final judgment of dissolution, a husband conveyed his interest in an estate owned by the entireties to his wife pursuant to a stipulation incorporated in a final judgment of dissolution, the wife took the entire estate free of any encumbrances created by the husband. The same principle applies here.

Because the conveyance to Mrs. Logan occurred prior to the dissolution, Hillman v. McCutchen, 166 So. 2d 611 (Fla. 3d DCA 1964), is also inapposite. In Hillman, this court held that an estate held by the entire-ties converted to a tenancy in common at time of dissolution long enough to create an interest in the husband to which a mortgage lien executed by the husband alone could attach. Hillman’s facts lend no support to Jonas’s argument because, in this case, the quit-claim deed was executed and recorded prior to the entry of the judgment of dissolution, and vested sole interest in Mrs. Logan before the dissolution was entered.

We therefore find that Mr. Logan possessed no interest to which Jonas’s lien could attach and affirm the final judgment entered in favor of Mrs. Logan.

Affirmed.

*

The property settlement agreement provides:

The Husband agrees to forthwith produce the deed on said marital home to the Wife and execute a Quit-Claim Deed to the Wife, thereby giving up any right, title or interest which he may claim in the said property within fourteen (14) days from the date of signing this Agreement.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Sharp v. Magali C. Hamilton, 520 So. 2d 9 (Fla. 1988)
    …rried, or if he had by quit-claim deed transferred title to her prior to dissolution, State Dept. of Commerce, Division of Employment Security v. Lowery, 333 So. 2d 495 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976), cert. denied, 344 So. 2d 327 (Fla.1977) and Jonas v. Logan, 478 So. 2d 410 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); or if she and Mr. Hamilton, in anticipation of divorce, had reached a property settlement agreement later incorporated into the final decree of divorce providing she would have sole title to the property upon dissolution, Liberma…
  • Sharp v. Magali C. Hamilton, 495 So. 2d 235 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986)
    …g from the dis [*238] solution, but rather that the special equity interest of the wife in the property had been acquired during the marriage and prior to the dissolution. 394 So. 2d at 227. The most recent decision in this area is Jonas v. Logan, 478 So. 2d 410 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), in which the trial court declared a mortgage lien null and void. In that case, Mr. Logan had executed a mortgage deed and note on tenancy by the entirety property by forging Mrs. Logan’s name. In anticipation of their pending dis…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw